Sen. Steve King

My friends and family who have enjoyed the hit movie “The Hunger Games” have no idea how close that fiction is to reality every wildfire season here in Colorado. In the federal version of the movie, “The Wildfire Games,” our communities are thrust into the same deadly contest every year, and left with the barest resources to save their homes from burning to the ground.

One unattended campfire. One lightning strike. Or even darker and more sinister, one intentional terrorist or arsonist’s match strike. That is all it will take for a catastrophic wildfire to erupt in any part of our state’s four million acres of dead trees. A wildfire that will show no mercy and will not yield as it destroys lives, homes and our environment. The fear of fires in Colorado’s most precious water sheds alone should sound alarm bells to the highest reaches of state and federal government.